Maruti Suzuki India chief Bhargava, while speaking at the company's AGM attended by Osamu Suzuki, said the management and workers need to improve relationship

New Delhi: Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSI) on Tuesday admitted it needs to improve management-worker relationship in the aftermath of violence at its Manesar plant, reports PTI

"The management and the workers need to improve relationship," MSI Chairman RC Bhargava said at the company's Annual General Meeting (AGM), in the capital.

The violence at its Manesar plant last month in which a senior official was killed and 100 others injured, cast a shadow on MSI's 31st AGM which was also attended by Osamu Suzuki, Chairman of the company's parent, Suzuki Motor Corp.

Bhargava, who led shareholders in observing a minute's silence in the memory of slain General Manager (HR) Awanish Kumar Dev before the proceedings of the 31st AGM, expressed hope that the company would resume full scale production at the Manesar plant soon.

"Manesar plant violence was pre-meditated. It was unprecedented, not only in the history of MSI, but also in the industrial relations history of India," Bhargava said.

He, however, stressed that to the management there were no "ostensive reasons" for the violence and at the time of the incident "there was no pending demand from the union".

Recollecting Dev's contribution to the company, he said: "Awanish was a very dedicated HR Manager. He had a very good relation with union and it is an irony of fate that he was killed by workers."

On restoration of normal production at the plant, Bhargava said, "We do hope to restore full production in a reasonable period of time." However, he did not specify a timeline.

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Three days of continuous fall may be followed by a small gain but the trend is down

The market, which witnessed a recovery from the lows in the last hour of trade on buying in select blue chips, still settled in the negative for the third consecutive day. Disruption of Parliament proceedings for the sixth day in a row, which has led to a halt in the reforms process, is making investors restless. Yesterday we had mentioned that the Nifty will move sideways with a negative bias, however, a lower low may take the index further down to its first support at 5,325. Today the index went below this level and settled slightly above it at 5,335. We may now see the benchmark seeing a small bounce back. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) saw a much larger volume of 64.93 crore shares and the advance decline was hugely negative at 400:1277.

The market opened flat with a negative bias tracking weak global cues and the continuing political imbroglio at the Centre. US markets settled mostly lower overnight as investors await the announcement from Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday. Markets in Asia were mixed in morning trade as the Japanese government downgraded its growth assessment in view of the global slowdown.

Back home, the Nifty started off at 5,348, down two points and the Sensex fell three points to 17,676. Buying in select stocks enabled the market hit its intraday high in initial trade. At this points, the Nifty rose to 5,359 and the Sensex 17,712.

The benchmarks made half-hearted attempts to venture into the positive in the morning session but strong selling pressure amid choppy trade ensured that the market stayed lower.

Meanwhile, Deepak Parekh, chairman, HDFC, in an interview to a popular business TV channel, expressed concerns of a possible downgrade if the current situation of policy paralysis continued. “If downgraded to junk status, we will see substantial outflows,” he said.

The market continued to slide further in noon trade as a lower opening of the European indices added to the woes. The indices dropped to their lows a little before 2.00pm. At this point the Nifty fell to 5,313 and the Sensex retracted to 17,571.

Bargain hunting at the lows enabled the market stage a minor recovery in late trade. But the gains lacked strength leaving the benchmarks in the negative for the third day.

The Nifty settled 16 points down at 5,335 and the Sensex finished the trading session at 17,632, a loss of 47 points over its previous close.

Markets in Asia closed mostly down as investors turned cautious ahead of an announcement from Fed chief Ben Bernanke later this week. Concerns about China’s economic growth also and the scaling down of its growth assessment by the Japanese government also weighed on the markets.

The Jakarta Composite shed 0.07%; the KLSE Composite lost 0.06%; the Nikkei 225 declined 0.57%; the Straits Times fell 0.15%; the Seoul Composite slipped 0.08% and the Taiwan Weighted tanked 1.42%. On the other hand, the Shanghai Composite climbed 0.85% and the Hang Seng rose 0.07%.

At the time of writing, among the European markets the CAC 40 of France was down 0.58%, the DAX of German was 0.32% lower while UK’s FTSE 100 was 0.04% higher. At the same time, the US stock futures were marginally higher.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares aggregating Rs200.40 crore on Monday. On the other hand, domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities totalling Rs500.71 crore.

IT firm Mahindra Satyam (Satyam Computer Services) has partnered with global enterprise applications company IFS for joint sales and marketing activities of IFS’ Applications software suite and staff training. The agreement covers joint marketing, including sponsorship of the 2012 IFS World Conference, which will be held in October in Gothenburg, Sweden, Mahindra Satyam said in a statement today. The stock tanked 3.47% to settle at Rs95.90 on the NSE.

Dhanuka Agritech, a crop protection solutions company, has launched three agrochemical products in Tamil Nadu. One of the new products is an insecticide that can tackle sucking insects in cotton, vegetable, fruits, cashew and tea. The other, Fluid, is to fight larval insecticide in major crops, while the third one, Fuzi Super, is an herbicide for paddy. The stock dropped 3.23% to close at Rs90 on the NSE.

After massive protests by locals, the Goa State pollution Control Board (GSPCB) has asked Sesa Goa to stop all activities at its coke oven unit at Navelim in Bicholim taluka, 40 km away from the state capital of Panaji. The locals held a day long bandh yesterday protesting against the increasing pollution allegedly due to coke oven plant at Navelim. The stock declined 3.20% to close at Rs181.50 on the NSE.

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Journalistic ethics apply not only to the print media but also to the electronic media and there is no reason why electronic media be not regulated by a statutory body says the Press Council

New Delhi: The Press Council of India (PCI) has urged Union Government to carry out necessary amendments to bring electronic and social media under its purview, saying broadcast media's claim for self-regulation is 'futile' and 'oxymoron', reports PTI.

The PCI, which also sought to be renamed 'The Media Council', cited the recent incidents where social networking sites were used to spread rumours that triggered exodus of people belonging to north-eastern states to justify its demand for widening its area of operation and said there should not be any "dilly-dallying" in the matter by the Government.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the PCI said that it had resolved that the "Government of India be requested to initiate suitable legislation to amend the Press Council Act, 1978, by (i) bringing the electronic media (both broadcast and social media) within the purview of the Press Council Act, and renaming it as The Media Council."

The PCI also sought more powers for itself, the statement said, adding that it had passed a resolution to this effect at a meeting held yesterday in the capital.

"Journalistic ethics apply not only to the print media but also to the electronic media, and hence there is no reason why electronic media be not regulated by a statutory body, when the print media is regulated," it said.

PCI Chairperson Justice Markanday Katju has in the past also expressed views that the electronic media should be under the purview of the council.

The PCI also gave reasons for passing the resolution to include the electronic and the social media within its ambit.

"When the Press Council Act was enacted, there was no electronic media, and hence there was no need for any legislation for regulating the electronic media," the PCI statement said.

"Subsequently, the electronic media has come into existence. Journalistic ethics apply not only to the print media but also to the electronic media...," it said.

The PCI said that experience had shown that "the claim of the broadcast media for self-regulation is futile and meaningless, because self-regulation is an oxymoron."

"All social activity has to be regulated. Regulation is different from control. In control, there is no freedom, while in regulation, there is freedom but it is subject to reasonable restrictions in the public interest," the PCI statement said.

The Press Council also said that it was in favour of only regulation and not control, and that this regulation should be by an independent statutory authority like the Press Council of India and not the government.

The Council said that it presently has 28 members (apart from the Chairman), of which, 20 are representatives of the Press.

"These 20 members are not appointed by the government but elected by press bodies. All important decisions are taken by majority vote. If the electronic media is also brought under the Press Council (to be named The Media Council), the electronic media will also have their representatives in the Council," it said in its statement.

The Council said that recent happenings had indicated that regulation of media was important.

"In recent times, experience has shown that the unregulated electronic media is playing havoc with the lives of the people. An example is what happened to the people of North-East," the PCI statement said.

"Hence, the Press Council resolved that now the time has come when there should not be any dilly-dallying in the matter by the Government, and the amendments to the Press Council Act, as proposed above, should be made forthwith," the PCI said.